All the extra money helped to push consumer spending up by the largest amount in six months, but economists warned the boost would likely prove short-lived given all the other problems facing consumers at present.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that after-tax disposable incomes jumped by 5.7 percent in May, the biggest one-month gain since a 6.3 percent increase in May 1975 when Ford was president. He was fighting a recession that year with a program to mail individual taxpayers $50 checks.

This time around individual payments range from $300 to $600 with couples getting up to $1,200. In all, $48.1 billion in rebate payments were made in May and through this week, the government announced Friday, payments total $78.3 billion — three-fourths of the $106.7 billion scheduled to be paid to 130 million households. The payments are to be completed by mid-July.